


History Is Sometimes Hard To Forget

by Clairebear1982



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Paranoia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 23:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28964706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clairebear1982/pseuds/Clairebear1982
Summary: Despite everything they've tried to do, history has a way of reminding them that sometimes it can be hard to forget. Dramione. Muggle!AU.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Kudos: 7
Collections: International Wizarding School Competition - Ilvermorny





	History Is Sometimes Hard To Forget

Written for the International Wizarding School Championship.

School: Ilvermorny  
Year: 7  
Theme: History: Write about how history affects a character's life.  
Prompts:  
Main: [Word] Paranoia  
Additional: [Emotion] Rage  
WC:1344  
__

Draco woke with a start. His heart was racing, and he was covered in a cold sweat. The spot next to him was empty.

He wiped the cold sheen from his face, and ran his fingers through his damp hair. Draco took deep gulps of oxygen, and gradually his breathing slowed. He tried to remember what he'd been dreaming about. But it was gone.

Draco slid out from under the duvet and padded downstairs.

He walked towards the kitchen, where he found his wife sitting at the table. She held a mug in her hands. The smell of coffee filled the room.

"Hermione?" Draco questioned quietly. "Are you alright?"

"Hello, love," Hermione said, blowing on the hot mug. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Nightmare. You?" he asked as he walked into the room.

"Same," said Hermione, and then she sighed. It sounded like the weight on her shoulders forced the air out of her lungs.

Draco eyed the coffee pot, but hovered behind his wife, leaning his hands on the smooth wood of her chair, and as she looked up at him behind her, he pecked her on the head. He finally made his way to a cupboard and took out his favourite mug, and he filled it with coffee before joining Hermione at the table.

"Same dream?" Draco asked, swirling the coffee, smelling rather than drinking.

"Yeah, I'm guessing it's the same for you?" she asked.

He just nodded and watched the brown liquid in his cup swirl.

Draco hardly noticed her slender hand reach over and cupped his hands. When would this nightmare end? It had been two years since the incident, but still, the nightmares plagued their sleep.

_Hermione and Draco had been out on a date, but first, he’d had to stop off at the bank to make a deposit to their wedding savings account._

_He had been standing in line, patiently when it happened. A dozen masked men had stormed the bank. They killed several clerks within minutes. Hermione and Draco were bound and forced to watch, amongst the many other hostages, as they ruthlessly gunned down and killed many._

_They were held for hours, but it felt like days. The police had been able to rescue them, but it hadn’t saved Hermione and Draco from being threatened by their capturers. They were told that if they tried to escape, they would go the same way as the others._

_Of course, Draco had tried to protect Hermione. He had gotten right up in one of the captors faces, and he tried to defy them. A gun barrel was pressed to his head and a gunshot wound to his shoulder._

_Hermione had screamed for them to stop, but a fist had smacked her hard across the face — hard enough that it left a bruise on her cheek for several days._

_Hermione was left to cradle her then-fiancé, trying to apply pressure to his wound until the police had arrived and arrested the culprits._

Neither were able to forget it. The nightmares forbid it.

Friends and family had tried to convince them that maybe they should see someone to help them process what had happened. That had only been met with rage from Draco.

"I'm not talking to some quack. A degree will never help them to understand. They haven't seen what we've seen, felt what we felt, or been put through the shit that we have. No, I am not going to therapy, and that's an end to it."

Hermione, on the other hand, refused to leave the house. Her paranoia was such that she was convinced that their captors were following her. It had taken Draco nearly six months to be able to convince Hermione that it was safe enough for her to leave the house. The very first time he had mentioned about the possibility of going out to Hermione, she had had a huge panic attack.

_"No, no, no, I can't. Please don't make me, Draco, please." Hermione had sobbed, her head in her hands. "They’re following us!"_

That had been the first attempt.

On the second attempt, he managed to get Hermione onto the street. The third she stayed outside for five minutes. The fourth she'd been able to get in the car and have a ride around Warminster, where Draco had stopped off at the River Wylye. He hoped if he had taken her out to her favourite place she might find a sense of calm.

"Let's go for a walk," Draco had tried to smile.

Hermione had stiffened in her seat. "I don't know if I can," she said.

He had stepped out of the car in the hope that she would eventually follow him. Hermione bit her lip nervously, she slowly followed Draco into the warm sunshine. Draco had taken her by the hand and slowly, they had walked along the river bank for a while.

****  
Ginny had been arranging a girls lunch as part of Hermione's Hen party, but it had taken months to persuade Hermione to come.

"I promise you that it’ll be safe, Hermione. Those men are behind bars," Luna said as she hugged Hermione. “They can’t hurt you anymore.”

Ginny had sent Luna to talk to Hermione. Luna had such a calming influence on everyone. She was able to soothe and help people remember that they were braver than they felt.

"I don't know, Luna," Hermione said. "I don't know if I'm ready to go out, not without Draco."

"Hermione, you can't wait for Draco to help you all the time, you have to trust your friends too," Luna said softly. "Please, Hermione?"

"Can I think about it?" Hermione asked nervously.

Eventually, after much discussion with Draco, she had decided to go out with her friends. He’d told her how brave she was, how he loved her defiant nature, unwilling to let people push her down. He told her she could get it back if she wanted to.  
The day did not go well. In the end, Hermione ended up having a panic attack when a couple of teenagers wandered past them with hoods up and balaclavas on.

Harry had been put in charge of Draco's Stag do. It was going to be a small gathering of friends to celebrate Draco finally marrying Hermione after years and years of chasing her.

"Congratulations on finally getting your own way," laughed Ron.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Draco clapped back.

"N—Nothing. All I meant was that she finally said yes."

"Did you expect that she wouldn't? What did you think? Surely not that _YOU_ would be more successful? Keep dreaming, Weasley, you were never good enough for her!" Draco sneered.

Ron's ears started turning bright red. Always a danger sign.

"Screw you, Draco. I've tried to be a friend to you, and this is how you repay me? Yeah, I may have had a crush on her in school, but I grew out of that. She’s a wonderful woman who deserves _A LOT_ better than you!" Ron spat.

With that, Draco had punched Ron in the face, who flew back at Draco with a right-hook. It took both Harry and Neville to drag them apart.

"Dude what's with you?" asked Neville. "You never used to be like this in school. Sure you were a bit of a brat, but never an outright bastard."

Draco went limp in Neville's arms.

Eventually, they managed to get back some sense of normalcy — whatever normal was. Despite her paranoia, Hermione managed, with gritted teeth, to go wedding shopping, her friends in tow. Draco, after a cooling-off period, apologised to Ron. It took some badgering from Hermione for him to do so.

Their wedding finally went ahead. It had only been a small affair, but they set aside the past and their demons to enjoy the day. After that, they truly realised that the hell they had been through was over.

Then the nightmares started.

They took comfort in the other’s arms. History, no matter what they did, always affected their present.


End file.
